Blueberry Date Snack Cake

You guys, this Blueberry Date Snack Cake is so, so good! It’s super moist and easy for little ones to chew, but it’s also made with a handful of wholesome ingredients that are good for your family—and taste good too. This blueberry cake also stores really well, so you can totally make it ahead and serve it throughout the week!

Healthy Blueberry Cake

This Blueberry Date Snack Cake with Oats is a yummy toddler snack or dessert, yes, but it also makes a delicious toddler breakfast. It’s made with a base of rolled oats, eggs, and almond butter—and blueberries and dates—so you can feel good about serving a treat to the little ones. It’s gluten-free if you use GF oats and is packed with protein and good fats for the little ones. And it absolutely takes like a treat!

Make-Ahead Snacks for Kids

I absolutely don’t scratch-make all of the snacks that my kids eat, but I do love making them occasionally to vary what they’re eating and the nutrients that are going into their little bodies. This sort of toddler snack is exactly the kind I turn to week after week: It’s nutritious, easy to make, and it’s perfect for the entire family to share. I love it as much as they do and we all feel like we’re getting a treat when we get to eat a slice. I love how long it stores in the fridge too, so I often make it to eat for breakfast!

How to Make Blueberry Date Snack Cake Step-by-Step

Here’s a look at what you need to do to bake this simple recipe for your family.

Soak your medjool dates for about an hour. Drain, pat dry, and remove the pits.

Preheat the oven and grease a baking pan.

Grind the oats into a coarse flour in a food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients except the berries and grind to blend.

Transfer to a pan and sprinkle with blueberries. Bake!

Once cool, you can slice into bars and serve or slice and wrap or place into an airtight container.

How long can I store this blueberry cake?

This simple cake (which I often think of as a bread!) stores in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can put the bars into an airtight container or wrap each bar individually and store in a zip top bag. Either way works! You can eat it cold, at room temp, or slightly warmed, depending on your preference.

Can I use something other than oats in this recipe?

You can use quick oats since we grind the rolled oats into a flour, but I haven’t tried this with steel cut and I wouldn’t recommend trying it since I think they would likely still be too chewy! I use ground up oats instead of flour since I like that it adds whole grains and that the gluten-free folks in my family (me!) can enjoy this too.

Is there a substitution for almond butter?

You can use peanut butter or for a nut-free version, try Sunbutter. If you choose unsweetened versions, the final taste will be just slightly different but really similar.

What kind of dates are in this cake?

This cake calls for medjool dates which are big and moist. I call for soaking them for a bit before using them in this recipe so that they plump up even more and help the flourless batter hold together well. Look for them in the refrigerated section of your grocery store or you can find them here on Amazon.

Blueberry Date Snack Cake

Description

This recipe makes about 16 bars, depending on how large you make your slices, so cut them into the size that you want for your family. Cutting 4 rows each way to get 16 bars is usually the perfect size snack for myself and my kids (though sometimes I eat two at once!)

Instructions

Place the oats into the bowl of a food processor and grind into a coarse flour, like the texture of instant oats. Add the baking powder, salt, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, eggs, almond butter, vanilla, and dates. Process until smooth, about 15-30 seconds. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula.

Sprinkle the blueberries over the top and press gently into the batter. Bake for 32-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the pan comes out cleanly. Cover with foil for the last 10 minutes of baking to prevent the edges from browning too deeply. Place the pan onto a wire rack and let cool completely before slicing.

Notes

Slice into bars, place into an air tight container or a zip top bag, and store in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Reader Interactions

Comments

A general question / suggestion: is there a way to display amount of fiber in your recipes? I think that’s pretty important to know for toddlers. I imagine this is a function of the software you use to get the nutrition info estimates, but thanks in advance if you can provide it at least for this recipe.

I’m wondering if you could sub unsweetened shredded coconut for the rolled oats (you mention this as a sub in one of your other recipes) AND sub melted, cooled butter for the almond butter (you mention this also as a sub in another recipe) in this recipe??

Hi Sarah! I don’t think you can sub coconut entirely for the oats (in some of my other recipes, you can sub additional oats for the coconut, but not the other way around) since I doubt they’d be absorbent or hold the batter together like the oats do. You may be able to use regular flour if you prefer? I would think that the butter would work okay though! Let me know if you have any other questions!

This one is such a keeper. Easy to make, healthy, different enough from my usual muffins–everyone loved it! Was dessert last night and breakfast this morning 🙂 Thanks for another awesome, doable recipe.

Hi Kelly- You could try Sunbutter in place of the almond butter if that’s a doable ingredient. I have not made this recipe with it, so I cannot guarantee that it would work exactly the same way, but I have used it as a direct replacement before so I think you’d have a good result.

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